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Division 4 Team Of The Week: Week 1 - Three Oaks River Valley

THREE OAKS - It was a “breakout year” in 2019 at Three Oaks River Valley, with the Mustangs winning their first conference championship in 13 years and first district title in 15 years.

The 25-10 season ended with a loss to Decatur in the regionala and the 2020 campaign was cancelled. But the Mustangs have made the most of their time back on the field in 2021 with three easy wins to open the season in earning Prep Baseball Report Division IV Team of the Week honors.

“So far the depth overall has stood out,” explained head coach David Sokolowski, whose team has sandwiched a 17-1 win over New Buffalo and 9-3 victory over Michigan Lutheran around a 13-3 triumph over 2019 nemesis Decatur. “We’re not an extremely old team, but we’ve had a couple kids really rise to the occasion. We have a very talented freshman and had a sophomore step up in the lineup.”

Ryder Wolnik starts at shortstop as a ninth grader and is also one of the top two pitchers on the squad. In his high school debut on the mound, Wolnik threw four one-hit shutout innings against Decator while going 2-for-2 with five RBIs at the dish.

Sophomore Aidan Coy had his first start of his career in that game and played third base with a hit, bringing more optimism with the underclassmen according to Sokolowski.

A pair of juniors have also played major roles with catcher Chris Israelite, a transfer from Chesterton, Ind., who has three doubles and five RBIs to date. Ethan Izydorski is another 2022 who has 11 stolen bases and scored nine runs with a .400 average batting leadoff.

“He’s an absolute spark plug at the top of the order,” Sokolowski pointed out about the team’s starting right fielder.

Sophomore Eli Thomas, a loft-hander, mans center field and bats second with six runs scored and a .700 on-base percentage.

“The key for this team is getting better with our bats,” noted Sokolowski, a 28-year-old fifth-year head coach with a 56-39 record. “Even with our high run total so far, we can afford to be more aggressive at the plate. Our defense is solid, that’s where I’m most confident. With our pitchers, it would help working ahead a little more in the count.”

Two seniors provide leadership to the squad in Evan Strefling and Gavyn Rogers. Strefling, is a three-hole hitting first baseman who has a .636 on-base percentage with eight runs scored.

“He’s one of the hardest workers in the program and the leader of the team,” Sokolowski said. 

Rogers, who went 2-for-3 in the season opener, is expected to be one of the top pitchers on the Mustangs while also playing third base.

“We’ve been big on practicing fundamentals, doing a lot of D work and hitting being without baseball for a year,” related Sokolowski, the top-ranked Division 4 team in the first state poll of the season. “I feel we would have made a state run in 2020 with the team we had but we graduated nine very talented players. Getting back out there and playing has been huge for this team, which has a big week ahead starting tonight at Bridgman followed by road games on Wednesday with Paw Paw and a doubleheader on Friday at Lawrence. A home contest on Saturday against New Prairie from Indiana completes the busy week of action for Three Oaks River Valley.

“We’ve had some of our younger guys stepping up to the challenge that haven’t played varsity baseball. It’s great to see them rising to the challenges put in front of them. We were pinned with the number one ranking to start the year which is something that’s never happened here since the mid-90s when we were winning state championships.”

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